Home
Listing
Search the List

Enrich the List

Apply for Listing

What is Listing?

Listing Guidance
Listing

Find out about listed buildings and other protected sites, and search the National Heritage List for England (NHLE).

Find out about listing

The Old Blacksmith’s Shop The Old Blacksmith's Shop, Wiltshire © Historic England DP276780
Advice
Advice Finder

Heritage at Risk

Your Home

Technical Guidance

Planning

Caring for Heritage

Constructive Conservation

Heritage Protection Guide

Coronavirus Support & Advice
Advice

See our extensive range of expert advice to help you care for and protect historic places.

Get our advice

Tubwell Row Darlington, since 2001 improvements to Darlington Town Centre have sought to celebrate its architecture and create a pedestrian heart with an inclusive shopping and civic area © Historic England
Research
Our Research Strategy and Agenda

Research Methods

Current Research

Research Results

Support & Collaboration

Inclusive Heritage

Latest Research

Heritage Counts
Research

Discover and use our high-quality applied research to support the protection and management of the historic environment.

Discover our research

Testing vertical aerial photography methods at British Camp on the Malvern Hills. Read about our latest aerial investigation methods © Historic England Archive. (S3282_V_0651)
Images & Books
Find Photos

Search All Publications

Buy Books

The Historic England Archive
Images & Books

Historic England holds an extensive range of publications and historic collections in its public archive covering the historic environment.

Browse our collections

A portrait of John Laing outside Bournemouth train station, during a staff outing of Laing's London office. Photographed 30 May 1953 © Historic England Archive. John Laing Photographic Collection. JLP01/08/008844
Services & Skills
Education

Grants

Our Planning Services

Training & Skills

Archive Services

Heritage Action Zones
Services & Skills

Find out about services offered by Historic England for funding, planning, education and research, as well as training and skill development.

Learn about our services

New Heritage Partnership Agreement Signed at King's Cross Station © Historic England
Get Involved
High Street Culture

Everyday Heritage

Support Us

Volunteer in Heritage

Protect Your Heritage

Visit Your Heritage

Help Write History
Get Involved

Explore the many ways you can help to support the incredibly rich and varied heritage.

Get involved in heritage

Brixton Windmill - Friends of Brixton Windmill. Shortlisted for ‘Best Rescue of an Industrial Building or Site’ Angel Award in 2012 © Historic England
What's New
News

In Your Area

Historic England Blog

Latest Research

Heritage Online Debate

Statements

Stay up to Date

The Queen's Platinum Jubilee
What's New

Read about our current news, projects and campaigns nationally and in your area.

Catch up with what's new

Sandra Kazlauskaite interviewing a Youth Club group at Grantham Community Centre. © Emm Nunn
Sign in
Manage my account

Sign out

Bolton Old Hall moated site

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1008045
Date first listed:: 06-Mar-1953

Enrich the List

Be the first to add a photo and help showcase this place to others.

Upload a photo

Location

Location of this list entry and nearby places that are also listed. Use our map search to find more listed places.

This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale.

What is the National Heritage List for England?

The National Heritage List for England is a unique register of our country's most significant historic buildings and sites. The places on the list are protected by law and most are not open to the public.

The list includes:

Find out more about listing

Historic England Archive

Search over 1 million photographs and drawings from the 1850s to the present day using our images archive.

Find Photos

Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1008045
Date first listed:: 06-Mar-1953
Date of most recent amendment:: 09-Mar-1994

Location

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

District:: East Riding of Yorkshire (Unitary Authority)
Parish:: Fangfoss
National Grid Reference:: SE 77174 52091

Reasons for Designation

Around 6,000 moated sites are known in England. They consist of wide ditches, often or seasonally water-filled, partly or completely enclosing one or more islands of dry ground on which stood domestic or religious buildings. In some cases the islands were used for horticulture. The majority of moated sites served as prestigious aristocratic and seigneurial residences with the provision of a moat intended as a status symbol rather than a practical military defence. The peak period during which moated sites were built was between about 1250 and 1350 and by far the greatest concentration lies in central and eastern parts of England. However, moated sites were built throughout the medieval period, are widely scattered throughout England and exhibit a high level of diversity in their forms and sizes. They form a significant class of medieval monument and are important for the understanding of the distribution of wealth and status in the countryside. Many examples provide conditions favourable to the survival of organic remains.

Bolton Old Hall moated site survives well and will retain significant information on the buildings which occupied it, and on the manner and duration of its usage. The well preserved moats will retain organic materials.

Details

The moated site at Old Hall, Bolton includes a main site with two rectangular islands, defined by a silted and now dry moat, a smaller moated site attached to the south-eastern corner of the main site, and an outer moat which lies to the north and east of the main site which includes a fishpond in its northern arm. The two islands of the main moated site are both orientated north-east to south-west. The northern island measures 100m long and 30m wide; the southern island measures 70m long by 40m wide. The moat which divides these two islands is 2m deep and 11m wide; the enclosing moat is between 1.5m and 2m deep and 10m wide. The smaller moated site lies to the south-east of the main site and is attached to the eastern corner of the main moat by a short silted channel. The enclosed island of this smaller site is 10m long south-east to north-west and 6m wide and is enclosed by a (now dry) moat 0.5m deep and 3m-4m wide. To the north and east of the main moated site an outer moat is separated from the main moat by an earthen bank 30m wide. The eastern arm of this outer moat is 10m wide and 2m deep at its deepest point. At the northern end it is shallower where it has been partially infilled; at its southern end it has been largely infilled and partially built over. The northern arm of this outer moat is 1m deep and 6m wide. A section of it has been widened to form a fishpond which is 26m long east-west, 13m wide and 1.5m deep. Originally this outer moat would have been connected to the moat around the main site; the nature and position of any such link is now not clear. There is no evidence that the outer moat originally extended around the west and south sides of the main moated site, although slight earthworks to the south of the latter may be a remnant of an intermediate bank similar to that on the north and east. The monument was the site of a house owned by Ralph de Micklefield de Birkin, nephew of Archbishop Grey, and Robert de Bolton, one of Yorkshire's medieval Members of Parliament. All telegraph poles which stand on the site are excluded from the scheduling but the ground beneath them is included.

MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:: 21195
Legacy System:: RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Le Patourel, H E J, Moated site of Yorkshire, (1973), 110
Other
CUC BFA 22-24, CUC BFA 22-24,

Legal

This monument is scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 as amended as it appears to the Secretary of State to be of national importance. This entry is a copy, the original is held by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.